KALAMAZOO, MI – With beads of sweat trickling down his face and a verse from Matthew 22 on his mind, Vanguard North pastor Michael Stewart's message for more than 100 Edison neighborhood residents assembled at the Stockbridge Avenue United Methodist Church on Monday evening was simple.

"Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Stewart and about a dozen other Kalamazoo citizens offered suggestions on how to make the Edison neighborhood a safer place for everyone during the Enough is Enough Community Forum Against Violence at the church, located on the corner of Stockbridge Avenue and Mills Street.

"I see the teenage violence every day," Lamphiear said. "I'll sit on my front porch and I'll witness teenagers walking by each other and exchanging drugs and money."

Lamphiear said that while an increase in police presence could help the neighborhood, he said that it will take a community effort to curb the violence.

"What can one person do?" he said. "It takes more than one person."

Evangelist Jane Willhite, 70, more commonly known as "Mrs. Banny" to those she has helped throughout Kalamazoo, has worked with Landhealers Ministries and co-founded the Inner City Respect Academy which has dealt with more than 3,000 youth as a result of work they have done in Kalamazoo schools since 1995.

"We have a motto," Willhite said. "First, you have to reach them before you can teach them."

Mutual respect, Willhite said, is the key to working with young people in areas like the Edison neighborhood and it all starts at home.

"Charity begins at home and then spreads abroad," she said. "The kids want to do the right thing. You have to be consistent with them. Once you have earned their respect they'll do anything for you."

After passing a microphone to various community members who delivered messages on how to improve safety in the Edison neighborhood, leaders invited members of the audience to offer suggestions on how to make the neighborhood immediately safer.

Two of the most popular topics among residents involved expanding an existing neighborhood watch program and various ways to get more guns off of Edison streets.